My phone buzzed as I decided to go with an up-do. Carter.
Has your pussy been devoured yet?
Laughing, I pulled my hair into a bun before texting back:
Not yet…Give it a couple of hours.
A couple of hours for him to start or a couple of hours for him to finish?
Both….I’m sure he’ll be down there a very long time. Something tells me you know nothing about giving and are all about receiving.
Something tells me that you don’t know me as well as you should.
Before I could even begin to comprehend what he meant by that, he sent me another text:
Have fun on your date tonight. Let me know how it goes later.
Thanks…I will.
He sent me a colorful picture of a skeleton lying in bed with the words “I’ll be waiting” and I laughed, now realizing that despite the amazing kiss we’d shared, and the outlandish sexual text he’d just sent, it didn’t mean anything to either of us. We were just friends.
Just friends…Just friends…
I put on another coat of pink lipstick, and heard a soft knock on my door. “Yes?”
“Arizona?” My roommate, Heather, knocked once more.
“Yeah?”
“You got a minute?”
“Sure, come in.” I leaned close to the mirror and plucked an errant hair from my eyebrow.
She stepped inside, smiling at me through the glass and I smiled back. When I’d first moved off campus and into our shared house, I’d thought that she and the rest of the girls would become some of my closest friends, but that never came to be. They were all majoring in medical studies, and since their schedules were practically the same, they tended to keep to themselves for the most part. With the exception of our early morning conversations around the coffee maker on the weekends, we always saw each other in passing.
“Me and the girls of the house wanted to give you this,” she said, handing me a pink gift box. “It’s a farewell present since you’re the only one who’s not staying in town after the summer.”
“But I’m not going anywhere for another two months…”
“Yeah, but everyone is always all over the place now that we’re working our residencies, and we can never all be here at the same time, so I didn’t want to forget.” She pulled a tiny blue box from her back pocket. “This one is for Carter.”
“Why does Carter get a gift? He’s not a roommate.”
“No, but we see him just as much as we see you.” She shrugged. “My boyfriend is downstairs now. I just wanted to give you that before we start watching our movie.”
“Thank you.” I was truly flattered. “I really appreciate this.”
“You’re welcome.” She gave me a quick hug and left as quickly as she had come in.
I untied the box’s bow and started to unwrap the gift, but Chris called me as I was tearing the first flap.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Are you ready or do you still need a little time?”
“I’m ready.”
“In that case, I’m at your door.”
“Be right down.” I grabbed my clutch and headed downstairs, checking myself in the hallway mirror one last time.
I opened the door and saw Chris standing there with a huge bouquet of yellow flowers.
“You look beautiful…” He pulled me close for a kiss, gently slipping his tongue against mine and whispering against my mouth; I only felt a small tingle. Nothing groundbreaking.
Slipping his arm around my waist, he led me to his car and held the door open—smiling as I slipped inside.
“I never took you for a guy who likes pop music,” I said as he turned on the radio.
“I don’t…I just remembered that you do, and that I’m supposed to do whatever’s necessary to get you to sleep with me later.”
I laughed at his dry humor and hummed along to the music as he drove. Tonight was in fact our third date, and even though he was joking, I knew the three-date-sex rule was playing in his mind.
We pulled up to the pier half an hour later and walked hand in hand to Emilia’s, an Italian restaurant that everyone at the beach loved. Since he’d made a reservation, we were immediately seated near the window, and the waiter came over with a complimentary house wine and asked to take our orders.
As he was writing down what I wanted, I spotted Carter sitting at a corner table. With Tina. He was dressed in a white shirt that was unbuttoned at the top with black slacks, and she was wearing a dark green dress that left little to the imagination.
Although Carter looked somewhat detached, he was holding her hand on top of the table.
I took out my phone and shot him a quick text.
You decided to try the relationship thing with Tina instead of just sex? When did that happen?